Objective: To understand the importance of play for children with visual impairment

• Just like all children, those with visual impairment learn from play. The quality of their play is affected by their visual impairment, because they cannot imitate nor are they easily aware of the play materials in the environment. Make sure the child knows what’s going on! Make no special provisions, but describe, explain, and teach.
• Typically, there are six stages of play:
• Unoccupied: the child seems not to be actively engaged in the first months; visually impaired children may need longer than peers to organize themselves; use heavily inflected speech.
• Solitary: introduce toys to visually impaired children: with crevices and holes large enough for the index finger to explore; stacking toys for hand/eye co-ordination; familiar, safe, household objects lead towards creative play; nice-looking toys may be tactually boring. The child must be given and develop control; moving parts and sounds are helpful.
• Onlooker: the child may be attentive; it is important to answer questions
• Parallel: children doing the same thing learn from each other; it teaches listening, aural observation, sharing, and turn-taking.
• Associative: children begin to play “together” but may not share purpose; more interested in each other than toys; the beginning of task sharing
• Cooperative: the beginning of teamwork, role assignment, leadership. All the other stages lead to this, incorporating cognitive development, social interaction, and motor skills.
• Children with visual impairment are capable of going through all of these play stages but may need some tactful intervention in progression.
• The risks are obvious: Observation occurs but may look different; imitation may be verbal instead of visual; initiation, or entering a group of peers, might be more difficult. Embed a child in a team. Encourage exploration of people, objects, and environment. Teach active learning.
• Help parents understand how the visually impaired child behaves and responds. Play includes interactive games between parents and all their children. What matters most is encouragement and love.
• As children grow older, aspects of social initiation, entering conversations, and working together with others all stem from these early play experiences. Make the child a DO-ER, instead of a DONE-TO-ER.